Out of Bounds

Fred Bowen Sports Story Series

by Fred Bowen

Eighth-grader Nate Osborne is a forward on his U-14 soccer team, the Strikers. He and the rest of his teammates are very competitive, especially when it comes to playing against their rivals, the Monarchs. They want to win so badly that they’re willing to root against them when they play other teams. But Nate’s soccer-playing aunt demonstrates how playing fairly with good sportsmanship and trying your hardest is more important than winning. Will Nate find the balance between exceptional sportsmanship and playing your best to beat your opponents?

Genres: Sports, Middle Grade

144 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2015

About the author

Fred Bowen is the author of Peachtree’s popular Fred Bowen Sports Story and All-Star Sport Story series. A lifelong sports fanatic, he has coached youth league baseball, basketball, and soccer. His kids’ sports column “The Score” appears each week in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post. Bowen lives in Maryland.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever wanted to find and read a book that takes you through a kid's soccer adventure but never found one? Have you ever wanted to learn about what soccer really is? If you ever catch yourself asking these questions you should read this book Out of Bounds. This book is realistic fiction and it is written in a first person perspective since it is told by the main character. The main character of this book is called Nate Osborne and he is on a U-14 soccer team. He plays for a team called Strikers and he has a other team called Monarchs which are his teams biggest rivals. In this book Nate is faced with a challenge he has to decide whether to when the game for as much as it costs as the monarchs would or to play with good sportsmanship. The setting of this book takes place when Nate's coach Lyn hands out to the team the list of teams and games that they will play on the soccer field. The first thing Nate and his best friend Sergio do is talk about there game against the Monarchs. The reader here learns how competitive Nate and Sergio are and you get a better idea about their character traits. People who might like this book are people who are just looking for a good soccer book that doesn't just state facts about the game. You will also like this book if you are interested in sports especially soccer. Finally an interesting part of this book is when Nate watches a soccer clip and he sees two teams. One wearing yellow and the other wearing red. There is a yellow player holding his ankle and he is on the ground. Following the rules and being a good player the red player kicks the ball to the yellow teams goalie however the ball slips through the goalies hands and enters into the goal. After that the whole red team lets the yellow team score even though they followed the rules and it was the yellow teams fault. This clip is very interesting because it really teaches Nate what good sportsmanship is.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nate Osborne and his teammates on the Strikers soccer team want nothing more than to beat their rival team, the Monarchs in this year's championship. While it feels like the boys might be willing to do anything to win, Nate learns from his aunt, who is also a soccer player, that there are certain unspoken rules in soccer about fair play and good sportsmanship, including a tradition where game play stops when an injury occurs. At first, when Nate tries to put his new-found knowledge into action in a game, his teammates and opponents scoff at the idea, but ultimately, they all realize it is better for the best team to win based on ability alone, not because of the other team's misfortunes.

This book is another great addition to Fred Bowen's series of middle grade sports books. Like the others, Out of Bounds uses a sporting experience as a means of teaching an important life lesson, and in an afterword, ties the story to real-life examples from sports history. This formula works so well, and Bowen's writing is engaging, lively, and easy to read. What stands out most in this specific story is that Nate's role model is not an older brother or a famous soccer player, but his aunt. There aren't many books where female athletes mentor boys, and it is an interesting dynamic to explore. Especially fun is the bet Nate and his aunt have about who will score more goals in the season, the loser of which has to bake cookies for the winner. There is also a greater focus on statistics and standings in this book than in some of Bowen's other stories, which gives it a nice STEM connection, and also appeals to kids who like both sports and math. Also notable is the dialogue, which rings true as the real talk of middle school boys, but without a lot of the vulgarity and toilet humor that is often associated with this age group. Bowen's books are not just interesting, but wholesome too, which means parents are likely to appreciate them as much as their kids.

Soccer books for this age group are difficult to find, but Bowen has two others so far: Go for the Gold and Soccer Team Upset. Other possible read-alikes include Double Fake by Rich Wallace, Shoot-Out by Mike Lupica, and Striker Assist by Jake Maddox.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that I picked up for my 14 year old son Luke. It was so like his life that I just knew he would love it. The story is about a boy named Nate Osborne (my Luke's real life cousin) who plays on a u14 competitive soccer team and plays striker (my son's real life!) Anyway, needless to say, my son has yet to read the book (even though it mirrors his life!) so I decided to.

The author is a retired lawyer, sports enthusiast and now full-time author. He did a good job of writing an interesting story as well as really understanding soccer. He used all of the right terminology and made the story believable and credible. Anyone who loves soccer will love this book since it details a lot of the game play and makes you feel like you are in the game with the characters.

[Sue Poduska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bowen came up with another gem in this novel about Nate, an eighth grade soccer player. Nate is a forward on the Strikers, a U14 team playing in a fall league at the local SoccerPlex. Many of the game situations used in the book are straight from famous games played in the past several years. It’s a fun and exciting way to see human relations in practice.

[Rachel Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for M.C.B.A., and I actually liked it. There was a story by the same author on the list last year, so I knew what to expect. This one taught a great message about sportsmanship, which I really liked. I don't love sports stories, but this one was overall pretty good.

[Nosara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for MCBA and it was not an amazing book but not awful. Its about soccer and not very exciting!